Jan. 29, 2001 -
The founder of OneSecure, a Denver-based Internet security firm, isn't bashful when it comes to comparing his company with its competitors.

"It's the difference between the Flintstones and the Jetsons," said 29-year-old Rakesh Loonkar.

Today, OneSecure officially launches its services, which are designed to protect business networks from hackers. Demand for Internet security services is hot, fueled by highly publicized attacks on major Internet sites, such as Yahoo, eBay and Amazon.com.

And OneSecure has plenty of support to ensure that it will fly rather than cave in.

In two rounds of funding, the company secured $92 million. Telecom Partners, one of Denver's largest venture-capital firms, and Palo Alto, Calif.-based Crescendo Ventures led the initial round of $25 million last April. Both firms also participated in the second round, which closed earlier this month.

Despite a tight venture-capital market, OneSecure was able to secure significant financial backing because of its impressive management team and its unique service offering, said Todd Miller, an analyst with Yankee Group, a market
research firm.

"They really stand out, and there's over 90 managed-security service providers, so it takes a lot to stand out," Miller said.

OneSecure automates the management of several security services, such as intrusion and virus detection. The company also manages private Internet connections - known as virtual private networks - and
firewalls, which is software that monitors the information that enters a network and blocks unauthorized data.

"We've built a Web-based co-management system that allows the customers as well as our security engineers to manage all of the devices from one console,"
said Nir Zuk, OneSecure's chief technical officer.

Under the system, OneSecure engineers monitor their clients' systems from a central location. The company has a security-operation center in Sunnydale, Calif., and plans to open another center in Denver. It currently has 135 employees, including about 60 at its Denver headquarters at Interstate 25 and Colorado Boulevard. The goal is to have 400 employees by the end of the year; slightly fewer than half would be based in Denver.

OneSecure's platform could help decrease the cost of security management, Miller said.

"If they're able to automate the management of firewalls and virtual private networks, it's a cost saving to them, and they're going to pass that cost savings along to the customers," Miller said.

OneSecure's services will cost from about $2,000 to $4,000 a month, depending on the size of the client.

Another standout about the OneSecure platform is that it supports multiple vendors, which means businesses will not have to change their security software to be compatible with the service, Miller said.

Last year, businesses spent $450 million on managed-security services, according to Yankee Group. The research firm estimates that the global managed-security market will reach $2.6 billion by 2005.

In addition to Zuk, who was a former chief software architect for Check Point Software Technologies, the OneSecure management team has a number of other experienced executives.

The team includes chief executive Don Detampel, formerly president of Web-hosting firm GlobalCenter, chief financial officer Kevin Coyle, a former vice president and chief financial officer of Jones Intercable, and vice president of Internetworking Barry Dykes, who previously served as chief architect for Qwest Communications.

Though the research and development has been done in California, OneSecure chose Denver for its headquarters because it sees many potential employees and clients in the area, said co-founder Loonkar, who also founded InfoSolv, a security-consulting firm whose clients include Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Sun Microsystems.

OneSecure's services are a good security solution for small- and medium-size businesses that can't afford to hire their own engineers, said Mylissa Tsai, an information security analyst for Aberdeen Group, a market research firm.

"Signing on to a security service program makes good sense because they don't need to hire or retain these security experts," Tsai said. "It also gives the businesses access to the experts when they do need it." She expects the market to continue to rise for at least another couple of years. "Managed-security services have evolved over the last several years. It's become more prevalent particularly because people just cannot hire the security experts," Tsai said. "The threat has always been there. The publicized events have just made it more visible and more alarming."

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